Ockam Instruments Blog

Recent Ockam Instruments Blog Entries

The Ockam system navigation functions are focused on aiding navigators and helmsmen for boat safety. They also provide vital inputs to other performance functions such as current calculation. Heading tells you where the boat is pointed but not necessarily where it’s going. Vital to navigation and helmsmnship,

The Ockam system trim steer functions are used by helmsmen and sail trimmers to provide feedback for optimizing performance. True wind angle is useful for helming, orienting the boat relative to the true wind. It is especially valuable downwind where the human sensor system has less input.

The Ockam system tactical functions provide information that aid correct decisions about where you are and what’s going on with wind and current. Time to the Laylines Overstanding is a sin in racing. “Understanding” is a deadly sin. Many sailors have achieved guru status by consistently and

The Ockam system statistics functions are designed to help in decisions involving laylines, Vmc sailing and sail selection. On numeric displays, the six parameters displayed in round-robin order. On OS5, these functions are displayed on the Race page. Function Example Description Wind direction Mt:224 The average wind

The Ockam system performance functions provide the information you need to get the most out of your boat. Boatspeed is the most fundamental input to the Ockam system, and is the first thing the crew looks at when trying to make the boat go faster. It is

True Wind is the sailboat’s fuel supply. Of all the functions that an instrument system produces, wind functions are the most important for performance, tactics and strategy during racing. Wind Direction is the magnetic bearing of the true wind. It lets you to keep tabs on where

Sailing in Current could be costing you 50 seconds/mile Sailing in current can be a blessing or a curse. Current can approach 10% of boatspeed. If it’s going the same way you are, great. If it’s going the other way, bad news. If you don’t know where

Knowing where the sailing laylines are prevents overstanding Overstanding the mark is bad, but not as bad as having to short tack amongst your enemies. Sailing laylines are the final courses to the mark at the current wind speed and direction. They are calculated from the position

Tack analysis provides a useful metric for crew training Tacking is a complicated process involving the whole crew. The difference between a good one and a bad one is hundreds of feet loss to weather, not including possible personnel or gear damage. Tacking is an important part

SailPlan crossover chart is a live sail display that, in conjunction with instrument data and the current course, displays sail crossover information for the current and next leg. When a polar is included, apparent wind speed and angle, and target angles are also shown. Current wind conditions (the